Latest 'Discover Colchester' walk focuses on Cohen Woodlands

The Garden Club of Colchester teamed up with Colchester Land Trust members to present information about butterfly gardens located on the Cohen Woodlands property. Photo by Merja H. Lehtinen.

The Garden Club of Colchester teamed up with Colchester Land Trust members to present information about butterfly gardens located on the Cohen Woodlands property. Photo by Merja H. Lehtinen.

Merja H. Lehtinen, ReminderNewsReminder News

Latest 'Discover Colchester' walk focuses on Cohen Woodlands

The Colchester Land Trust and Garden Club teamed up on Sunday, Sept. 7, to present the planned new butterfly gardens and to introduce improved trails on the former property of the late state Rep. Rubin Cohen and his wife, Elizabeth Johnston Cohen.

Two dozen hikers and nature enthusiasts gathered at the old butterfly garden named for the Cohens, which Garden Club President Katherine Kosiba said is now a work in progress to revive. The gardens at Cohen Woodlands and Wildlife Sanctuary will need a vast array of flowers and herbs to attract and sustain butterfly development, said Kosiba, a master gardener.

"I have gained approval and established a partnership with the Colchester Public Works Department to do a Master Gardener Community Outreach project as part of my ongoing active Advanced Master Gardener certification. I have the approval of this project from the CT Cooperative Extension Services office in Haddam for Master Gardener," Kosiba said. "The plants will be furnished by me with the help of a grant from the Connecticut Master Gardeners Association which has already been received, Colchester Garden Club and other donations of plants and seeds. As part of my master gardener community outreach project, I am developing a plan for ongoing maintenance, hopefully with the help of new master gardener interns each year, and local groups and individuals." The Town of Colchester Public Works is supporting this project with assistance on an as-needed basis. The effort will also receive help from volunteers with the Garden Club and Girl Scouts. The Boy Scouts already completed trail improvements and built an information kiosk.

The Elizabeth and Ruby Cohen Woodlands, also known as the Cohen Wildlife Sanctuary and its surrounding 150 acres, including 30 or more recently acquired, are town property preserved for posterity. The hike was led by Land Trust hiking coordinator John Barnowski. He spoke about the area's political connections to governors, senators and other high-level politicians. "Cohen was even connected to Agatha Christie," Barnowski said. That was through the Jewish Bavarian Baron who sponsored Jewish European resettlement in Colchester, among other communities, in the late 1800s and early 1900s and whose money also financed the Orient Express, on which the famous author traveled, said Barnowski. "Talk about seven degrees of separation. It is amazing what one can learn from Google. I research interesting facts for every walk beforehand," he said.

The 150-acre public open space, with its vast yellow fields and an adjacent red barn (privately owned as is the house), were legendary in mid-20th century eastern Connecticut as the political meeting place where major Democratic party leader nominations, appointments and local and state issues were hashed out over poker games and drinks, even during Prohibition. Governors and U.S. Senators and Congressmen were frequent visitors. Cohen was a powerful state legislator, known as the Dean of the House, for three decades during which time Routes 2 and 11, and UConn medical and dental schools were planned and later built. He was also the second owner of record of the Colchester hamburger stand, Harry's Place, which he purchased at the age of 14. It is still in town, but owned and operated by a different family. Cohen spent many of his last years in peaceful solitude tending to his wild Canada geese. He would drive daily to Uncasville to pick up bread from the former Wonder Bread bakery outlet in winter and made sure animal-feed-quality corn was planted in spring for the summer and fall by neighboring farmers.

Cohen also worked with the state to assure the ponds were well stocked with fish. Children learned to fish on the grounds and derbies were annual events until his death in 1999 and even a few years thereafter.

The newly renovated trails extend through parts of the vast Dutton Swamp, wetlands on top of the West Road and Deep River aquifers that extend between Chestnut Hill Road and West Road. The watershed feeds the Deep River reservoir for Norwich, as well as a brook along Lake Hayward Ext. to Colchester's wells. The Eight Mile River Watershed is adjacent and south of Dutton Swamp and the Cohen Woodlands and Wildlife Sanctuary, but at a higher elevation. It also feeds into the Colchester water system and acquifers deep below the surface that provide water to Lebanon, East Haddam, Salem and Colchester on its south east side.